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Recovering Photos from Memory Card Error

Hi,

While on vacation I filled up the memory card and got a Memory Card Error (and No Image) meaning all my pictures were wiped out. I'm devastated by this and will be until I get my pictures back. Iíve heard of programs that can be used to recover files while a data recovery service I found charges average $400 for each card. Iíve tried CardRecovery and ZeroAssumptionRecovery programs to no avail. Iím willing to pay for the program I need and would be willing to pay maybe $150 for each card (I have 2).

Can anyone recommend a program that has worked for them or a reasonably priced service?

Ah dang. Sorry to hear about your issue. I personally have no experience with data recovery from flash drives =( Have you tried googling some? I did and it looks like most of them give you a free trial or demo. Maybe someone else here have more experience than I. Either way, I wish you the best of luck.

Flash memory is, to say the least, hard to recover if corrupt. A hard drive, there is something physically written on the drive. Flash, ones and zeros are stored with the idea that the ones and zeros won't change unless they are told to. On the rare occasion they do something they aren't told to, it can end up impossible to recover in many cases. If the pictures are sincerely valuable to you, getting a professional service with a results or refund guarantee is likely your best option.

I also did a hunt of file recovery software before when I accidentally deleted some files. The best one I found that worked was File Scavenger 3 (you can google this).
So after reading your post, I placed some picts into my 128MB card then deleted them. Then I used File Scavenger and poof! the picts were still there. The trial version only allows partial recovery but it can detect all recoverable files. Might be worth a try.
Although I must also say that if those picts are really important, you are better off with the pro than end up losing everything after many unsuccessful attempts.

EDIT:
OK I tried to reformat my SD card and tried File Scavenger. They have the "Long Search" that actually detected some files (not sure if all). The original filenames were gone and renamed as "UnknownXXX" but at least it preserved the JPG and MP3 extensions that were once inside my SD.

My cards are SD Kingston 2GB. From use of these programs so far it seems fairly easy to recover files Iíve deleted myself but thatís not my problem. The cards I need to recover from gave me that Memory Card Error message once they became full and then when I plugged in to try and download I got the No Image message.

I'm trying to many different programs and I seem to have the same results using each, which is that the program never even sees any files to recover. This doesn't bode well for me, I think. Each program has a different interface but as an example, one program has 5 steps to follow. Step 1 would be choosing the drive and folder where you want the files saved and then Step 2 would be the first recovery step but the Proceed button is not highlighted because it has to see files before you can proceed and the program sees nothing. Thatís just an example of what Iím finding.

Iím definitely open to using a pro service (though I cannot spend $800 for two 2GB card recoveries). I asked one service if my attempts to recover data using online programs would make it more difficult for a pro service to recover data but I could never get them to answer the question. Does anyone know if thatís a danger?

Pardon the drama queen moment but I am so upset about this that I will feel incomplete until I get them back. This was our first trip anywhere much less going overseas.

Hiya!
Did you get your photos back from ur memory card? The same thing has happened to me. It was my uncles wedding today and i took all the pics. Then my camera displayed 'memory card error', so I couldn't use it! So I came home and put the SD card into the computer and it won't read it, infact it makes my computer freeze/crash! Like you I used card recovery which didn't detct anything! Mine is a Kingston SD card 2GB as well. Did u get yours fixed? And if so, how????